That Wasn't in the Plan...

So, the plan was for our whole team to catch a train from Chennai to Kolkata this morning. The train would have put us all back in Kolkata around noon on Monday. Since I'm in an internet cafe posting to my blog, you can probably tell that I'm not currently on a train. I'll try to explain this as clearly as possible:

We all went to the train station this morning, the team sat down while Kristin went to figure out which platform our train was on. We were cutting things closer than Kristin would have liked, so as soon as she returned we grabbed our luggage and hurried to our train. We the found train, got on, and found our seats. While we were cramming our luggage under the seats, I realized that I didn't have my backpack. I guess in our hurry I somehow forgot to grab it from where we were sitting earlier. I dashed off to try and find it. I did take enough time to tell Todd where I was going first. I ran (running might be a bit of an exaggeration in a crowded train station) as fast as I could and I found my backpack where we had been seated (thank goodness it was still there!). I pushed my way back through the crowds and saw from a distance that the train was moving! I ignored all standards of decency and cultural appropriateness, shoving my way through the crowds and shouting for people to get out of my way. I wasn't fast enough, I couldn't catch the train. I had a feeling of absolute horror. My team was on a train back to Kolkata while I was still in Chennai. Even worse, my passport (which is required for buying train tickets and checking into hotels) was in my suitcase on the train! I didn't know whether to cry, throw up, or pinch myself to wake up from the dream.

Take a deep breath, I'm only kidding. The only truth to that story is that I am still in Chennai, and that we were supposed to leave this morning. The truth is that all of us are still in Chennai. Last night Kristen (non-leader) and April got really sick. We decided that a 27 hour train ride would be awful for them, so we decided to change our tickets and wait a few days before we head north. Unfortunately at this point the trains for the next while are all full, and we'll have to depend on cancellations. It sounds like there are usually enough that this won't be a problem, but the way the system is set up, we can only purchase those tickets 24-hours prior to departure (I have no clue why that rule is in place). The other downside is that we are very unlikely to find seven seats together. If we are lucky we may get some pairs, but we may just have seven singletons throughout the train. Time will tell.

Please be praying for us. Pray that Kristen and April will recover soon, and that no one else will get sick. Pray that getting new tickets will be a smooth process. Please pray for Kristin too, as a leader, this is the sort of thing that has potential to really stress her out.